Home Guard Parade

Information

1941: The Peterborough Group of the Home Guard consisted of two battalions - the city and the soke. On this Friday, the largest muster of the city battalion was present when it paraded past a saluting base set up in front of the Town Hall. Brigadier-General Sir Hereward Wake, Commandant of the Northamptonshire Group, was supposed to have taken the salute but he had been called away to see the king, so his deputy, Colonel Hobson, filled in. For some strange reason, the parade was led by a gramophone, with an amplifier mounted on a lorry. This was NOT a good idea as few could hear the music. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

An Eye for an Eye

1786

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On the 13th May 1786 Mr Robert Shelston was found dead in his yard in Eye. An inquest revealed his death had been caused by a fatal blow to the head: he had been murdered. After an investigation and conversation with several witnesses, the conclusion was made that Henry Love, also of Eye, was the perpetrator.

Henry Love was found playing ninepins in Market Deeping. He was arrested and taken to the Angel Inn in Peterborough, where he confessed to the murder quite freely. (1)

He went before Justice of the Peace Robert Blake on 12th July, where he was sentenced for execution on Borough Fen common the week after. Love was described as 'most astonishingly illiterate and of a sanguine disposition.' He'd also confessed to planning to rob and murder farmer Mr Richardson, also of Eye, before he'd been arrested. (2)

On Friday 21st July, Henry Love walked the five mile journey from the gaol in Peterborough to Borough Fen via Eye. He was attacked by angry villagers as he entered Eye. Henry was so badly beaten that he needed support to walk to the execution tree. He was hanged from the tree and from there his body was taken to an out building overnight in Peterborough. His body was used for dissection by doctors. (3)

References

(1) Stamford Mercury, Friday 19th May 1786, p. 3.

(2) Stamford Mercury, Friday 14th July 1786, p. 3

(3) Stamford Mercury, Friday 21st July 1786, p. 3.

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Notorious Highwayman Hanged

1605

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On this day the notorious highwayman Gamaliel Ratsey was hanged.

He was born in Market Deeping, the son of wealthy Richard Ratsey. Unfortunately as a young boy he went off the straight and narrow. In 1600 he enlisted in the army which accompanied Sir Charles Blount to Ireland but his time fighting did not cure him of his wicked ways. On his return to England in 1603 he robbed the landlady of an inn at Spalding. He was caught but escaped from prison, stealing a horse. He entered into partnership with two well known thieves named George Snell and Henry Shorthose and went on to commit many acts of highway robbery in Northamptonshire (which at the time included Peterborough).

Ratsey’s exploits were notorious but were also characterised by humour, generosity to the poor and daring. On one occasion, near to Peterborough, he robbed two rich wool merchants then ‘knighted’ them as Sir Walter Woolsack and Sir Samuel Sheepskin. On another, whilst robbing a Cambridge scholar he extorted a learned oration from him. He usually wore a hideous mask leading him to be called ‘Gamaliel Hobgoblin’. Ben Jonson wrote in The Alchemist (Act I, Scene 1) of a “face cut….worse than Gamaliel Ratsey".

Due to his generosity to the poor and the tales surrounding him, he became something of a folk hero and was the subject of several ballads. Sadly for Gamaliel, within two years his partners betrayed him to officers of the law and on the 26^th of March he was hanged in Bedford.

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Crime , MarketDeeping , Highwayman , GamalielRatsey , Crime and Punishment

A Highwayman in Dogsthorpe

1821

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A highwayman stopped a farmer on Lincoln Road near Dogsthorpe and threatened to murder him if he didn’t pay up. Another traveller happened to be passing on horseback and together with the farmer gave the highwayman ‘a thorough thumping’. The farmer beat him with his own bludgeon and the traveller whipped the clothes off the highway man's back before letting him go, so badly beaten they hoped it would mend his ways.

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Crime , Highwayman , Lincoln Road , Dogsthorpe , Farmers , Crime and Punishment

The Miracles of Lawrence of Oxford

1313

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A most peculiar story has survived from 1313 regarding a man known as Lawrence of Oxford. Records explain that he was hanged for 'evil crimes', and that miracles were taking place around his burial. What is intriguing is that he may have been buried in the Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr in the grounds of Peterborough Abbey, or at least in the burial ground of the hospital. When news reached residents of Peterborough, they started to flock to the site, happy to pay to receive a miracle. The monks were happy to profit from the situation too but, unsurprisingly, Bishop Dalderby, the presiding Bishop from Lincoln put a stop to such profiting from a criminal's demise, informing the monks that anyone who benefited from the situation would be excommunicated.

Sadly, nothing is else known about who Lawrence was, what his crimes were and how he ended up in Peterborough, but perhaps his remains are still in place and miracles are still happening...

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Crime , Hospital , Medieval , Peterborough Abbey , Medicine , Health

Transported to Tasmania

1840

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The Peterborough Sessions of 8th April 1840 was chaired by the Right Honorable Earl Fitzwilliam. Other magistrates present included Thomas Alderson Cooke, Reverend William Strong and William Bates.

During the session the magistrates had to consider several cases of burglary and theft. William Brown was convicted of stealing a pick axe at Southorpe near Barnack and was given 7 years transportation as his punishment. For the more serious crime of stealing 4 ewes and 4 lambs Thomas Sopps received 10 years transportation.

Surviving documents of transported convicts reveal that Thomas Sopps set sail on the Asia 1 ship on 12th April of the following year, arriving in Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, on 21st August 1841.

References:

Cambridge Independent Press, Saturday 11th April, 1840

https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/sopps/thomas/96056

Resources

Crime , Thomas Alderson Cooke , Earl Fitzwillam , Strong , Transportation , Crime and Punishment

Transported to the Americas

1773

Information

Two men appeared at the Peterborough Quarter Sessions accused of breaking into a shop and stealing watches and clocks from the premises. The men appear to be career criminals, the first was entered as James Day, also known as 'Jas Nicholson, alias Castles, alias Glover, and Edw[ard] alias William Nicholson. They broke into Mr Noble's watch shop and stole '42 watches and 10 pairs of cases &c.' some of which they had with them when they were caught.

The trial lasted six hours, which was very long for the time, and reached a verdict that the men were 'guilty of the felony, but not of the burglary'. If they had been found guilty of stealing the watches they would have been hanged, but the judges were reluctant to sentence criminals to death; instead the two men were transported for seven years. In 1773 transported criminals were sent to America or the West Indies, the majority ending up in Maryland. The final fate of the men is not known.

Reference: Derby Mercury, Friday 30th July 1773 p. 4.

Resources

Crime , Transportation , Crime and Punishment

Tramps Transported

1837

Information

During the second night of the Bridge Fair of 1837, three tramps broke into the shop of Mr F Broderick. He was a silversmith and his shop contained many expensive items. The tramps, identified as John Clow, John Walker and Sarah Simpson stole 'two silver watch guards, six pairs of ear-rings, and other articles of jewellery'. The combined cost of the items should have meant the defendants faced the death penalty for their crime, which might explain why the court case lasted for three hours. Judges were not keen to sentence anyone to the death penalty, so although they found them guilty, they sentenced them to 10 years transportation instead.

Sarah Simpson was sent to New South Wales on the John Renwick Ship. She left England on 25th April 1838, arriving in Australia on 27th August 1838. Unfortunately it is not know what happened to John Clow and John Walker.

Reference

Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette, Saturday 21st October 1837, p8, col 3

Resources

Crime , Transportation

Butcher Convicted of Sheep Rustling

1848

Information

Stealing sheep, also known as sheep rustling, was serious crime in the past, so important, you could be sentenced to death for stealing them. In the village of Eye, Thomas Ward worked as a butcher. In an effort to save himself the cost of buying the mutton he wanted, he decided to steal two 'shear wether sheep'. The term might have been a reference to 'sheared' wethers, castrated male sheep that have had their fleece sheared off, or is possibly an old term no longer in use. The sheep belonged to Mr William Pank Moore, who was a local farmer and who appeared amongst several other Moores including a William Moore, butcher.

Thomas Ward pleaded Not Guilty, but was found Guilty by the jury. He was sentenced to 10 years transportation.

References

Cambridge Independent Press, Saturday 15th January 1848, p 3, col 5

Northants Directory 1849, http://www.eyepeterborough.co.uk/heritage/history-gazetter-and-directory-of-northamptonshire-1849/

Resources

Crime , Transportation , Crime and Punishment

The Murder of Ross Parker

2001

Information

Ten days after the September 11 2001 attack in the United States, at a time of greatly heightened racial tensions, Ross Andrew Parker aged 17 years, who was white, was murdered in an unprovoked racially motivated attack. He bled to death after being stabbed, beaten with a hammer, and repeatedly kicked by a gang of British Pakistani men in Millfield close to Bourges Boulevard.

In December 2002, Shaied Nazir, Ahmed Ali Awan and Sarfraz Ali were found guilty of Parker's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, Awan to serve a minimum term of 18 years and the others a minimum term of 16 years. The judge, Sir Edwin Jowitt, said during sentencing,

”You put your heads together with the purpose of arming yourselves and of attacking an innocent man you might find by chance simply because he was of a different race to yourselves. A racist killing must be one of the gravest kinds of killing.”

As a result of the murder of Ross Parker, local authorities set up a unity scheme, whereby gang members from different communities were trained as youth workers to attempt to ease racial tensions and so reduce violence.

The press subsequently received criticism for under-reporting racially motivated attacks on white victims.

A memorial plaque for Ross Parker is located in the Netherton area of Peterborough where a football match is played each year in his memory.

References:

The Peterborough Telegraph

Resources

Crime , Murder , Racism

A Common Scold

1564

Information

To be a common scold was to be a woman (or occasionally man) of nuisance. She was a gossip, loud, argumentative, unruly and unpleasant. If her husband had no effect at quietening her (for she was his property) then she could be labelled as a scold and face a suitable punishment. This has typically been associated with the ducking stool, a seated contraption that women were tied to. Whilst strapped to the stool or chair, they were ducked in a river or pond, being submerged for a short while under the water. It was not designed to injure the scold, but to dissuade them from their anti-social behaviour.

Unlike Norwich, which has identified the bridge from which scolds were ducked or 'cucked', there is no local tradition of scolds being ducked, however there is a record of a scold.

Known only as 'the wife of John Slegge' a woman was identified as a common scold 'to the grievous disquiet of the tenants'. We don't know which part of the city she lived in, but we do know that she was fined four pence for her crime. At a time when four pence went an awfully long way, it was hoped that the fine would help to curb her oral outburst and quieten her tongue.

Reference

W. T. Mellows and D. H. Gifford (Eds), Elizabethan Peterborough, Part Three of Tudor Documents, (Northants Record Society, 1956)

Image

A ducking stool from Cassell's Illustrated History of England, Volume 3 (Common Domain)

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Crime , scold , punishment , Crime and Punishment , Elizabethan

Murder of Rikki Neave

1994

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Six year old Rikki Neave was last seen alive leaving for school at around 9am on Monday, November 28, 1994, from his home in Redmile Walk, Welland. He is believed to have been wearing grey trousers, a white shirt, black shoes and a blue coat. The following day Rikki’s naked body was found in a wooded area off Eye Road, close to Willoughby Court – five minutes’ walk from his home in the Welland Estate. A post mortem examination concluded that Rikki had died as a result of strangulation. Rikki's mother Ruth Neave was cleared of his murder at a trial in 1996, but she was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to child neglect.

Police began re-investigating the schoolboy's death in 2015, and in February 2020, James Watson, 38, of no fixed abode, was charged with the murder.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Fullwood, who led the high profile investigation, said: “The cold case review into Rikki’s murder was undertaken by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit in 2015.

“We began re-investigating the case in 2015 and following extensive investigative work, we have now been authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service to charge James Watson in connection with his death.”

References:

BBC News 17/02/2020

The Peterborough Telegraph 17/02/2020

Image:

Rikki Neave - Cambridgeshire Police

Crime , Murder

I am Jack the Ripper

1889

Information

In 1888 Elizabeth Ashworth, a prostitute, entered the Prince of Wales Feathers public house on City Road at about 10pm. After an argument with George Taylor in which he had hit her across the chest and they fought on the floor, she shouted 'I am Jack the Ripper' before stabbing him in the head four times.

George left the pub to find a policeman and returned to see Elizabeth leaning against the Fitzwilliam coffee house cutting tobacco with the knife. The knife had blood on it, but she claimed that was from a cut she received whilst cutting tobacco. George, whose 'face and hands were smothered in blood' went to the infirmary where they discovered his injuries were thankfully not serious.

At the ensuing court case she was found 'guilty under great provocation' and received nine months in gaol. It is worthy of mention that she was previously convicted of stabbing her estranged husband in his cheek and was witnessed threatening her own mother with a knife in the street in Yaxley.

Peterborough Standard, 5 January 1889, p. 8.

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Crime , Jack the Ripper , Murder , Crime and Punishment

Death by Deadly Nightshade: the Accidental Poisoning of a Coachman

1748

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In the height of the summer of 1748, a chaise and pair (carriage with two horses) travelled north from London with a coachman and two gentlemen passengers. After a journey of several days in the heat of the summer, the chaise stopped in a lane near Peterborough. There the coachman spotted some shiny black berries at the side of the lane and had a little snack. This would turn out to be a grave error, for they were Deadly Nightshade berries, also known as Belladonna.

The poison in the berries took some time to work and at first he was ‘inclined to idiotism than madness.’ After stopping in Peterborough where he ‘took some oil for it’, the man managed to drive the carriage to Spalding, but things got worse there. The men stayed the night in an inn where the poisoned man talked deliriously and tore the bed he had been sleeping in. At around seven in the morning the man, who was by that point naked, climbed out onto the roof of the inn through his bedroom window. He started running along the roof, destroying all that he could. He smashed windows, removed window leading, half destroyed the chimney and pulled up most of the tiles on one side of the roof, throwing them at people who tried to stop him.

An attempt to dislodge him with a ‘water engine’ (likely to have been the town fire engine) managed to cool him down before his foot fell through the roof and he was dragged back into the inn. He was taken to the town gaol where he ‘continued raving in a most affecting manner’ for several days until he was given antimony. Being calmer but still very unwell, he was taken in by Mr Skinner, a Quaker, who provided a bed for him. Attempts were made to remove the poison from his body, but he died a few days later, a tragic end to the unnamed coachman.

Reference: The Scots Magazine, September 2 1748, p. 46-47

Image by Ulrike Leoni from Pixabay

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Crime , Horses , Crime and Punishment , Medicine , Health

Gaolbreak!

1716

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Peterborough gaol, or jail, was based near the cathedral gateway. It was cold, damp and very dark and was described by some as being like a dungeon. It is no surprise that people tried to escape from it then.

In April 1716 William Doyson had been locked in the gaol, but he managed to escape! An advert was placed in the Stamford Mercury describing him and asking for his return. He was described as 'a middlesized man and middle-aged'. He also had 'black hair [and wore] a white frock with black horn buttons and black button holes, if not changed.' There were very specific descriptions of his scars, making note of the 'large scar on the left-hand side of his upper lip' as well as 'two scars on his left hand, like his being burnt in the hand.'

The plucky prisoner managed to escape by 'filing off his irons' suggesting he was kept in shackles. Gaoler Edward Smyth was offering a guinea and 'reasonable charges' for the return of William Doyson, which was a considerable sum equal to several days pay for a skilled tradesman and a lot more to a poor man. We can imagine that he fled pretty fast and pretty far though!

Amazingly, this wasn't the only gaolbreak at the time. William Baker, apparator to the Bishop of Lincoln, had been gaoled in Stamford by gaoler John Westwood, but had escaped on 28th March. The same reward was offered for his return.

Reference: Stamford Mercury, 5 April 1716, p. 12.

Image by StarGladVictory from Pixabay

Resources

Crime , Abbot's Gaol , Gaol

Spring in Trouble at Easter

1841

Information

In 1841 an almost farcical tale started to unfold in the magistrates court regarding Richard Spring junior. His father was keeper of the house of correction, the jail near to the cathedral, and Richard junior was a carpenter.

A wooden partition measuring 20 feet (6 metres) had been installed to separate the prisoners, but was taken down by Richard Jun. and turned into band boxes, which he sold and profited from. The removal of the partition had been watched by one of the prisoners and he wasn't impressed!

He asked Richard Spring Snr if he could speak to the city magistrates to report a robbery, and was granted permission. At the magistrates session, he revealed what Richard Jun had done to the partition, whilst resulted in Richard Senior's instant dismissal.

At the Easter sessions Richard Jun. was sentenced to three months in the same prison he had once stolen from! He appeared in the 1841 census as a prisoner with four other men. Let us hope that one of those men wasn't the one who tipped off the magistrates, for they would both wish for the partition was reinstalled then!

References:

1841 Census, District Peterborough Gaol, Minster Close Precincts, Northamptonshire, p. 2.

Singular Committal, Cambridge Independent Press, 6 March 1841, p. 3.

Peterborough Easter Sessions, Cambridge Independent Press, 10 April 1841, p. 3.

Resources

Crime , Prison , Abbot's Gaol , Gaol , Crime and Punishment

The Peterborough Richmond Building Society and Peterborough Model Building Society Started

1884

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Building Societies were created to allow poorer men, and women, to own homes when they had been previously excluded. The societies were designed to be friendly and accessible, and, at a national level, were the first opportunity millions of people in the country could potentially own their first home.

The first building society in Peterborough was the Peterborough Provincial Benefit Building Society but others have included the Peterborough 'RIchmond' Building Society and the Peterborough Model Building Society. The First Peterborough 'Richmond' Building Society began in 1884, shortly followed by the Second in 1886, which could have a maximum of 400 members. It was advertised as being 'the Easiest, Cheapest, Shortest, and Best for Working Men. Ladies and Children may be Members.' Whereas the PPBBS was for the benefit of male railway workers, this was open to other people, including women.

The Peterborough Model Building Society had four different societies, with the first starting in 1889. Subscribers were invited to meetings at the Bedford Coffee House, and a lecture 'by lime light' titled 'Britain's Homes: Past and Present' was provided by founder Arthur Conner at the Drill Hall in July and September. Ladies were 'specially invited.'

In 1931 the Second, Third and Fourth Model Building Societies were thrown into scandal after the secretary of the societies, a Mr Richard William Parr of Werrington, was arrested for embezzlement in the town hall following an inquiry. He faced the judges at the Peterborough Quarter Sessions in April and June, in what was a gruelling court case for the 71-year-old. He was found guilty of the three charges brought against him and sentenced to one year of hard labour in jail for each charge, his sentences running concurrently.

References:

The First Peterborough Model Building Society, Peterborough Standard, 29 June 1889, p. 4.

The First Peterborough 'Model' Building Society, Peterborough Standard, 10 August 1889, p. 4.

The First Peterborough 'Model' Building Society, Peterborough Standard, 31 August 1889, p. 4.

Building Society Sensation, Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail, 27 March 1931, p. 2.

Image by Nannatan from Pixabay

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Crime

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Home Guard Parade

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An Eye for an Eye

1786

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Notorious Highwayman Hanged

1605

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A Highwayman in Dogsthorpe

1821

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The Miracles of Lawrence of Oxford

1313

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Transported to Tasmania

1840

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Transported to the Americas

1773

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Tramps Transported

1837

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Butcher Convicted of Sheep Rustling

1848

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The Murder of Ross Parker

2001

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A Common Scold

1564

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Murder of Rikki Neave

1994

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I am Jack the Ripper

1889

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Death by Deadly Nightshade: the Accidental Poisoning of a Coachman

1748

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Gaolbreak!

1716

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Spring in Trouble at Easter

1841

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